5 Investigates has learned that a body discovered in a wooded area next to Interstate 95 southbound on Wednesday has been identified as Joey Brancato, a Marine recruit missing since late last year. Brancato’s family was notified Thursday of the positive identification.

“My heart is broken,” said his mother, Kim LeBaron-Brancato. “I don’t know how I’ll go on without him. He was a good kid. He wanted to be a Marine. That’s all he wanted to do. He wanted to fight for his country but instead he’s found dead on the side of a road.”

Awful.

Joey Brancato was reported missing on November 18. Our Facebook pagewas reported missing on November 28. People had been messaging that page for a week telling us to look into a recruiter named Frank Lipka. We lost all these messages when the page went down, but it was firmly on our radar. We honestly forgot about it until the news broke this week that Mr. Brancato was in fact deceased.

This is Marine recruiter and veteran Frank Lipka:

And he is a psychopath who recruited Joey back in September. As you can see from Frank’s Facebook page, he has been recruiting Boston area kids like Brancato for a while now. He has many videos and pictures of them lifting weights in what appears to be his basement.

There and Planet Fitness:

Hey kids – if someone tells you that they wanna life weights with you, and then they bring you to Planet Fitness, find a new instructor. And whatever you do, do NOT go to his basement.

Unfortunately Joey Brancato wanted to be a Marine so badly, and this guy was the recruiter from the neighborhood. Joey had twice been rejected and thus was lured by Lipka into his house in September, and was told that he would help get Joey into shape. Joey Brancato was reported missing on November 18.

Lipka, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was released from military custody on March 21 and “separated” from the Marines by the end of the month, the Boston Herald reports. He was then arrested at Logan International Airport the week of his release for allegedly threatening a pizza deliveryman with a gun last September. The pizza delivery driver told police he was standing at Lipka’s door in September when he heard the recruiter yell “I can’t stand this guy anymore!” and “the distinct sound of a gun slide being racked,” the Globe reports.

He told police he apologized to Lipka for being late when he opened the door and saw what appeared to be a gun on the staircase, according to the Globe. Lipka allegedly yelled at the driver about not paying the bill before eventually signing the receipt. Lipka later went to the pizza shop where he screamed at employees about missing sauces and challenged a worker to a fight, authorities said. According to the Globe, police executing a search warrant of Lipka’s home on Dec. 2 found dozens of airsoft and replica guns, as well as five cartridges of .40 caliber ammunition in a firearm magazine.

“I can’t stand this guy anymore.” It’s unclear if he was referring to Joey Brancato, who had recently moved in with him, or the pizza delivery boy, who he had not yet met. Either way, the fact that he was racking his gun slide seems to indicate that we’re dealing with a lunatic here. He wasn’t going door to door looking for ISIS, he ordered a freaking pizza. What reason could someone possibly have to do that in their house? Did he think the pizza delivery guy was there to rob him?

Then this nutjob goes back to the pizza place, yells at them about missing sauces, and tries to fight some minimum wage worker. Yea, clearly this guy is a killer. I mean, what more do you need to see?

But wait, there’s more:

According to WCVB, the 39-year-old Marine recruiter who Brancato had been training and living with was charged with drunken driving and leaving the scene of a crash with property damage related to a Jan. 27 single-car crash on the Jamaicaway in Boston.

DUI on January 27, long after he killed Brancato. Then in February…..

A month later, Lipka was taken into military custody in South Carolina on charges that authorities said were unrelated to the Winthrop native’s disappearance. The Globe reported that Lipka, who was the sole recruiter at the Roslindale office where Brancato’s application was processed, was held on charges related to drunken driving, an altercation with two Marines in his unit, and an absence without authorization from work.

Another DUI and an “altercation” with two Marines in his unit. Because that’s what psychopaths do – they get into “altercations” with everyone they encounter. Poor Joey Brancato didn’t stand a chance against this armed and trained killing machine.

The Marines cut ties with him shortly thereafter. Because he’s an animal.

He’s also a douche canoe going through a Gaffney-esque mid-life crisis, who thinks he’s hot shit because he drives around in a flaming red sportsmobile:

Which was likely part of his sinister luring plan. “Join the Marines and be awesome and drive around in nice cars like me. Pizza delivery boys everywhere no better than to forget our hot sauce!!”

According to him there were “good kids” out in the Boston area:

So good he decided to kill one of them.

I’m sure the cops are solely focused on him at this point as the killer, and the second DA Conley determines there’s enough evidence to move forward with prosecution for murder, they’ll arrest him for murder. They’ve got a lot already:

Lipka lived with Brancato

The body was found on I-95 in Canton, very close to where they lived in the Roslindale/West Roxbury area

Lipka had tons of weapons

Lipka is a loose cannon with severe anger issues who frequently got into “altercations” with people who looked at him the wrong way

Lipka never called the police to report that the kid who moved in with him was missing

At this point they know it’s him, it’s just a matter of proving it. I’m not a detective, but I watch a lot of Dateline, so I think I know what I’m talking about. First they go through Lipka’s cell phone. They find every call, text, email, and Facebook message he made. They might be getting a judge to force Facebook to give them access to his account right now (it happened with the Sterling CT murder last year) which takes 2-3 weeks. They find messages that implicate him for guilt. They determine when Brancato was killed, then they work with Lipka’s cell phone carrier to find all the places his cell phone pinged on the night in question. They go to all the gas stations and businesses he drove by, they pull videos, they get images of him with Brancato, then they get images without Brancato.

Boom. Arrested.

Anyway, like I said a whole bunch of turtle riders messaged us about this back when we had our Facebook page, but that’s died down a lot since people can’t find us anymore. So if you’re out there and you have some info you’d like to share with us then hit us up with an email ([email protected]) or follow and message us at Clarence Woods Emerson (my personal Facebook page).

21 Comment(s)

if nancy grace was a blogger she would be called turtleboy. some day your going to slip up and someone is going to sue your ass. this guy may be a killer and all the other things you call him or he could just be an overly friendly dude with ptsd and a short fuse. fyi go talk to some marines about how many fights they saw in their units, its literally a daily occurance

I’m no psychiatrist but, given his obvious “short” comings, he suffers from a severe case of “Napoleon Syndrome” aka “Napoleon Complex”. Couple that with latent homosexual tendencies and PTSD, this guy is a time bomb.

And scumbag retreads like you are why we do it, and there’s not a fuckin’ thing you can do about it, so get back to jerking off to Playgirl and fucking your ass with a wiffle bat, you fucking pillow biter of a douche canoe.

Is TB suggesting we arrest people with no evidence?
Everyone thought Gary Condit killed Chandra Levy right? Well the facts proved otherwise. WHere does he go to get his reputation back?

Military recruiters are below lawyers and used car salesmen, they lie lie lie, but that is how we get Marines…
The Medical Examiner could not come up with a definitive cause of death, so for all we know the kid died of exposure….

Innocent until proven guilty until convicted by a jury of ones peers.

Then we can hang him.

BTW he has not even been named as a “person of interest” let alone a suspect.

America in general lets too much pass. There are nuts like him walking around all over the place. This animal is a danger to the general public, and we should find a way to keep him away from innocent people. I have no problem with that at all. Why?

If he gets that insanely rancorous at a pizza place over sauce to the extent that he goes to the shop and threatens people, would you like to be the unfortunate future casualty who accidentally cuts this guy off at a rotary?

Lawyers find loopholes and create danger. You know that if he gets arrested, some liberal lawyer is going to find a way to spring him crying oppression and “feelz”, and the first thing he’ll do is reenact an Eli Roth movie on whoever he *thinks* ratted on him.

I personally don’t mind bending the rules to save law-abiding people. Yeah, I said it, and I own that statement. I don’t want some 5 year old kid murdered in a crossfire because some savage flipped out about someone making him have to stop for a red light – after he was sprung on some legal technicality.

Plant something on him if you have to get him off the street. I don’t care. Make it happen. Real justice should keep people safe, and shouldn’t just be so that an ironically obtuse notion of “fairness” can be needlessly authenticated.

Criminals are who they are because they break laws. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire to keep people safe. Maybe if criminals know they could get railroaded, they’ll feel less inclined to break the law.

I have found that it is sometimes hard to get the authorities to do their jobs! Just try contacting the Mental Health Department. I had an aggressive mentally ill guy next door for a while(he was aggressive towards me). When I called the Mental Health Dept I was told that they could not invade his privacy. I have had police officers tell me they can’t do anything unless they see it happen! Yes I do know that these things have to be investigated, but seemingly not acting on a suspected murder?

In no way am I defending this guy. But this goes to show why we need to take care of our military. He was in two Wars. Who knows what he saw there and who knows what he went through there. I’ve seen a lot of men and women come home with their minds completely messed up. And our government does nothing to help them. Unfortunately we see situations similar to this happen too many times and it’s because the soldiers are released With no type of help in the end. Don’t know if that’s the case here Or he could just be a sociopath. Either way our government still needs to put fourth more of an effort to help our soldiers coming home. Including him, maybe if he was more evaluated and given help this never would have happened. RIP I hope your family gets some sort of closure.

If the Marines want nothing to do with him that is a huge signal for any civilian law enforcement to become involved in the disappearance of this kid. Any recruiter that has a potential recruit in their home or POV has a fuckin problem. Need to get this psycho off the streets

Hell yes he’s the killer. And fuck him and his so-called PTSD. I’m a vet and wouldn’t hurt an innocent person if you water boarded me. He’s a piece of shit murdering hood rat. Do not lump me in with this POS. I served to protect all of you. Death by hanging.

Thanks for your service, man. I think most people know not to confuse the average vet with the ones like this guy. Most people who join the military do so for good reasons. Like yourself, they just want to serve the country. However, we all know that there are a small handful who join because they like the idea of violence. I have met a few guys like that and I think they’re tremendously dangerous.